2 years ago
Hi friends, hands up if you are #teamswish or #teamswirl
because if you are, you need to know about this dress/fabric combi...
Let's chat about the fabric first. How adorable is this tan and cream viscose challis fabric?! I enjoy this soft brown colour palette, and although a animal print is not for everyone, somehow the softness of the colours makes it a really beautiful design I feel.
The fabric is light-medium weight, is beautifully soft and drapey as I hope these pictures will show, and at the time of writing this is £8.99 per metre.
It is also available in two other colours - black and gold, and charcoal and blush. The fabric will be listed below of course.
The dress pattern is the adorable 'Daphne Dress' from the pattern designer Hubba Ding. This is the first pattern that I have sewn from Hubba Ding and it has been a dream. So much so that this is one of those rare times (for me) that when you sew a new pattern up, you straight away sew another version. Yep. Two in a row of these beauties.
So to give this dress the official description it has 'three tiers of ruffles that fall from just below the bust to just above the knee. The long sleeves are gathered at the cuff to give a soft, billowy effect'.
The style is relaxed fitting, there are no bust darts for shaping, and this is one of those wonderful garments that have no fastenings so they are simply an 'over the head' to put on and take off. Win.
Some of you might know I am an absolute ruffle lover so this is of course what attracted me to this pattern. What you might not know is that I really dislike gathering and, well, no gathering = no ruffles, so I just had to suck it up and accept that there is A LOT of gathering in this pattern. Not just the three tier layers that you can see, but also another two under layers too! So in total 5 x rectangular strips of gorgeous gathering create the dreamy skirt of this dress and let me tell you it is worth every stitch. Top tip here - for your gathering rows use a random colour thread that you might not need again or reach for very often because you might run out of your main thread if you use if for all that gathering otherwise.
Other details - I cut out a size 14 on this dress and the longest tier of the dress was so long it barely fitted on the folded fabric width when cutting it out as per the cutting instructions, but no problem I just cut it across the whole width of the fabric and figured that a cm or two short on that tier really wouldn't matter. It didn't.
I cut the length of the sleeve pattern piece shorter by 1.5" before cutting out as I am quite short and that worked for me. Just one more thing, this designer uses single notches to mark the 'back' notch of the sleeve head and bodice armhole positions and a double notch to indicate the 'front' of these pieces. This is obviously the opposite of what most of us are used to, but it doesn't matter - so long as you match up the single notch to the single notch and double to double then that's all that matters :)
Thank you to the wonderful team at Minerva for making this dress happen. I hope that you love it as much as I do.
See you again soon,
Kathy x
@sew_dainty
#minervabrandambassador #sewingproject #minervamaker #minervamakers #hubbading #hubbadingpatterns #daphnedress #fabriclover #seamstress #fabricheaven #rayon #rayonviscose #ilovesewing #lovesewing #sewinglover #tiereddress #cutedress #gathereddress #animalprint #leopardprint
because if you are, you need to know about this dress/fabric combi...
Let's chat about the fabric first. How adorable is this tan and cream viscose challis fabric?! I enjoy this soft brown colour palette, and although a animal print is not for everyone, somehow the softness of the colours makes it a really beautiful design I feel.
The fabric is light-medium weight, is beautifully soft and drapey as I hope these pictures will show, and at the time of writing this is £8.99 per metre.
It is also available in two other colours - black and gold, and charcoal and blush. The fabric will be listed below of course.
The dress pattern is the adorable 'Daphne Dress' from the pattern designer Hubba Ding. This is the first pattern that I have sewn from Hubba Ding and it has been a dream. So much so that this is one of those rare times (for me) that when you sew a new pattern up, you straight away sew another version. Yep. Two in a row of these beauties.
So to give this dress the official description it has 'three tiers of ruffles that fall from just below the bust to just above the knee. The long sleeves are gathered at the cuff to give a soft, billowy effect'.
The style is relaxed fitting, there are no bust darts for shaping, and this is one of those wonderful garments that have no fastenings so they are simply an 'over the head' to put on and take off. Win.
Some of you might know I am an absolute ruffle lover so this is of course what attracted me to this pattern. What you might not know is that I really dislike gathering and, well, no gathering = no ruffles, so I just had to suck it up and accept that there is A LOT of gathering in this pattern. Not just the three tier layers that you can see, but also another two under layers too! So in total 5 x rectangular strips of gorgeous gathering create the dreamy skirt of this dress and let me tell you it is worth every stitch. Top tip here - for your gathering rows use a random colour thread that you might not need again or reach for very often because you might run out of your main thread if you use if for all that gathering otherwise.
Other details - I cut out a size 14 on this dress and the longest tier of the dress was so long it barely fitted on the folded fabric width when cutting it out as per the cutting instructions, but no problem I just cut it across the whole width of the fabric and figured that a cm or two short on that tier really wouldn't matter. It didn't.
I cut the length of the sleeve pattern piece shorter by 1.5" before cutting out as I am quite short and that worked for me. Just one more thing, this designer uses single notches to mark the 'back' notch of the sleeve head and bodice armhole positions and a double notch to indicate the 'front' of these pieces. This is obviously the opposite of what most of us are used to, but it doesn't matter - so long as you match up the single notch to the single notch and double to double then that's all that matters :)
Thank you to the wonderful team at Minerva for making this dress happen. I hope that you love it as much as I do.
See you again soon,
Kathy x
@sew_dainty
#minervabrandambassador #sewingproject #minervamaker #minervamakers #hubbading #hubbadingpatterns #daphnedress #fabriclover #seamstress #fabricheaven #rayon #rayonviscose #ilovesewing #lovesewing #sewinglover #tiereddress #cutedress #gathereddress #animalprint #leopardprint